Skip to main content
Drink

Fish House Punch

A punch made with brandy, Jamaica rum, peach brandy, lemon juice, sugar, water, and ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fish House Punch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the loaf sugar in the lemon juice.

  2. Add the brandy, Jamaica rum, and peach brandy to the sugar mixture.

  3. Stir in the water and add ice.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Rum + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together84 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Peach + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together947 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Brandy + peachtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Rum + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Loaf sugar
Sweetens the punch and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the punch and offsets the sweetness.
Brandy
Forms the main spirit base, adding body and alcohol warmth.
Jamaica rum
Adds deep, rich aroma and flavor with molasses-like notes.
Peach brandy
Adds fruity peach aroma and a touch of extra sweetness.

The step that matters

Dissolve the loaf sugar fully in the lemon juice first. Sugar dissolves more slowly once alcohol is present, so adding spirits before the sugar is fully dissolved can leave grains or uneven sweetness throughout the punch.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, rum, peach, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, rum, peach, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Lemon WheyLemon Whey33 recipesLemon WineLemon Wine31 recipesLemon SquashLemon Squash10 recipesLemon EssenceLemon Essence8 recipes